(n.) The state of being foolish; want of good sense; levity, weakness, or derangement of mind.
(n.) A foolish act; an inconsiderate or thoughtless procedure; weak or light-minded conduct; foolery.
(n.) Scandalous crime; sin; specifically, as applied to a woman, wantonness.
(n.) The result of a foolish action or enterprise.
Example Sentences:
(1) It is a folly to think measures to fix eurozone governance will suffice, however needed those may be.
(2) A senior Conservative cabinet minister has issued a warning to leaders "of all political parties" that putting Britain's membership of the European Union at risk would be "complete folly" and that the "irresponsible" debate taking place is damaging the country's influence at the negotiating table.
(3) Whenever I hear about David Blunkett's tests for new immigrants, I think of my mother's initial impressions and don't know whether to laugh or cry: laugh because of the patent folly of his attempts to fix what is fluid and to codify what is contested in British identity; or cry at the racism that has inspired it, the nationalism that informs it, and the historical, political and cultural illiteracy that infects every part of it.
(4) Vice, folly and humbug – it is the point of satire really.
(5) Honor & Folly ( honorandfolly.com , one bedroom $165 a night, both bedrooms $215, plus a sofabed for children) is a home away from home with a fully stocked kitchen and a cosy living area decorated with vintage and locally crafted furniture.
(6) His friend Dingle Foot drafted an editorial that David then sharpened up, inserting phrases that summed up his outlook: 'We had not realised that our government was capable of such folly and crookedness...It is no longer possible to bomb countries because you fear that your trading interests will be harmed...this new feeling for the sanctity of human life is the best element in the modern world.'
(7) ‘Patriotism’ is a difficult concept to pin, and one man’s patriotism can easily be misjudged as folly or even treachery if we start judging based on a narrow understanding of the term.” Walid, a Muslim veteran of the navy, added that “even though we invaded Iraq based upon bogus information, that doesn’t diminish the sacrifice of Captain Khan and other American service members who lost their lives”.
(8) A few years before Lady Thatcher and Mr Letwin became obsessed with the poll tax, the American historian Barbara Tuchman wrote a book about the march of folly in human affairs from the Trojan to the Vietnamese war.
(9) To continue along this path of folly is not compatible with the maintenance of wealth, nor with the health of humans or the biosphere.
(10) At 568,969, the paper’s circulation had recently overtaken that of its old rival, the Sunday Times : it’s not true that it plummeted after Suez as a result of the outrage caused by Astor adding the line: “We had not realised that our government was capable of such folly and such crookedness” to Dingle Foot’s leader – but well-heeled middle-class readers who cancelled their subscriptions were replaced by relatively impoverished students and leftwing intellectuals.
(11) Some startlingly grand privately owned buildings have repeatedly appeared on the annual register of the most important listed buildings at risk – virtually all the HHA properties are listed, and many are also scheduled ancient monuments or set in grade I gardens – including garden buildings and follies at Castle Howard in Yorkshire and Frogmore mausoleum, which holds some of the Queen's ancestors, in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
(12) In London, the Times newspaper called Ford’s position denying aid to New York City an “act of monumental folly”.
(13) Giles Swayne London • "Intelligent" Boris Johnson commits the age-old folly of mistaking good fortune, selfishness, narcissism and aggression for intelligence, but unwittingly demonstrates the wrongness of his position.
(14) That police can legally do this, the QCCL argues, illustrates the folly and unfairness of laws intended to safeguard an event at which police, on their own projections, will outnumber protesters three to one.
(15) This sad state of affairs shows the folly of handing over taxpayers’ money to unaccountable groups to run schools.
(16) There are obvious implications for public services, and the clear link between poor public services and demand for healthcare is ignored at our folly.
(17) In a household, it would be economic folly to lay out grand plans without having the money to pay for them.
(18) The cliff-side Mussenden Temple is a folly that was modelled on the Temple of Vesta in Rome and built for the Earl Bishop of Derry (one of Lord Bristol’s eccentric forbears), in 1785.
(19) Follies plays exquisitely on the unreliability of memory and the ephemerality of theatre; it is a stark warning against the distorting dangers of nostalgia.
(20) In giving $850bn to the IMF the G20 are only making the poor suffer more, and forcing them to pay for the folly and greed of bankers and speculators.
Jolly
Definition:
(superl.) Full of life and mirth; jovial; joyous; merry; mirthful.
(superl.) Expressing mirth, or inspiring it; exciting mirth and gayety.
(superl.) Of fine appearance; handsome; excellent; lively; agreeable; pleasant.
Example Sentences:
(1) And he enjoyed holding court to pretty girls and jolly lads at the Academy Club, a bohemian joint he founded next to his office.
(2) 1.37am BST Cardinals 0 - Dodgers 0, top of 2nd Well Ryu doesn't look nearly as shaky as he did against the Braves, rather, he looks a whole lot like the jolly fellow that went 14-8 with a 3.00 ERA in the regular season.
(3) Spain tells UK not to lose its cool over Gibraltar in Brexit talks Read more Henry seemed like a jolly chap.
(4) Her teenage sons, who haven't read the book, tease her often, which is jolly; her mother, though distressed to find that Christian and Anastasia never seem to shower after sex, is delighted; even her father-in-law likes the book.
(5) In another part of the recording, Bloom says, in reference to a ruling from the European court of human rights: "You can torture people to death but you jolly well can't give them a full life sentence because that's against their human rights.
(6) Nick had come armed with previously unpublished details of Liberal Democrat plans for Lords reform and a blueprint for site value rating which Dave had told him was " Jolly interesting, Nick, it really is" before passing it to Andy Coulson.
(7) A few weeks ago, an official from the Cabinet Office gushed on his blog about a jolly exciting trip, a kind of pilgrimage, to Amazon and Google in Seattle and San Francisco.
(8) Together with his late wife Janet, he wrote 37 titles including perennial favourites The Jolly Postman and Burglar Bill, and by himself he is the author of many more, including The Pencil, and Woof!
(9) Stressing the jolly side of atheism not only glosses over its harsher truths, it also disguises its unique selling point.
(10) Debbie Jolly of Leicester, said: "Coalition ministers can manage on £145,000 per year plus expenses, but some disabled people have to try and manager on less than £31 a week.
(11) The Palestinian comedy team Watan a Watar have enjoyed huge success with their take on an Isis propaganda video featuring a roadblock and a quiz: incorrect answers mean instant execution but these jolly, bumbling jihadis win points to get them to Paradise.
(12) Given the jolly atmosphere of the holidays, the bartender allowed a dog owner to bring in their animal.
(13) At one level it's very gentle and quite jolly; at another, if continued assiduously, it means they are after you.
(14) One needs to be jolly careful – and it is appropriate in a friendly relationship to be jolly careful about reaching judgements of serious violations of IHL.” The hearings in closed court end on Friday.
(15) Just wide expanses of inoffensive pleasantness so strong that if any of the bloody really jolly nice people on the show were to drop their grins, their overexerted jowls would fall straight into their cake mix.
(16) But does it have much in common with the jolly pre-modern gourmandising recommended this week by David Haslam of the National Obesity Forum?
(17) When her career took off at the age of 10 – a childhood of performing in the living room led to a stint jollying around with Barney the purple dinosaur in the 90s series Barney & Friends – Gomez's mother, Mandy Cornett, became her manager, a relationship Gomez now describes as "like a Gilmore Girls bond, except the dialogue's not as clever".
(18) When he was found guilty of contempt of court last year for claims in his bestselling book, Once a Jolly Hangman , his youngest daughter emailed to ask: "Will they hang you Dad?"
(19) The 18 patients with folic acid deficiency had a significantly higher rate of megaloblasts, binucleate erythropoietic precursors, Howell-Jolly bodies, giant myelocytes, and giant metamyelocytes in bone marrow smears than the remaining 23 patients (P less than 0.05).
(20) But, to be fair, Sally was jolly, plus she was friendless because of the house move of a previous best friend.